Joseph's coat of many colors has become the stuff of art, parenting books, spiritual seeking and a now-timeless Broadway musical.And wow, is it loaded!  Perhaps Joseph's coat became such a Biblical icon precisely because it is so loaded.Stitched into its amazing technicolor weave is a deep teaching about how we make meaning in our lives –… Continue reading The Amazing Technicolor Hindsight Stories We Tell Ourselves (P. Vayeishev)

Sometimes received religious traditions fail to hear the voice of suffering.  Even worse, received traditions can suppress the voice of suffering. It happens because every religion, by definition, titrates high principle through inherently limited and flawed human capacity. What is our duty in response? By Rabbi David Evan MarkusVayishlah 5786 (2025)Past Divrei Torah on this portion:• On Mideast Peace: Is… Continue reading Hearing the Unheard: P. Vayishlah

Believers might readily embrace the spiritual prospect of asking God a question and receiving a response (whether with a knowing or feeling beyond self, or an inner sense within).But how about disbelievers?  In a rational world of left-brain logic, can suffering and brokenness drive a rational response that is spiritual?  Indeed they can, and the… Continue reading Rational Spirituality Beyond Belief (P. Toldot 5785)

When we think of a "pause that refreshes," most modern Jews will think of Shabbat.  For sure.Turns out that a daily "pause that refreshes" is good for the soul, and for work efficiency, and physical health.  And it's very Jewish.Read on, with a bonus spotlight on R. David's learning at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.… Continue reading The Pause that Refreshes (P. Chayei Sarah)

When the going gets tough, some of us have an instinct to pull in – to self-isolate, even conceal our tough times. Maybe we resist drawing attention to ourselves or our difficulties.  Maybe we feel that stoicism and privacy are the best parts of valor.  We cleave to normalcy like it's nobody's business. For deep reasons, Jewish spiritual… Continue reading Sick Visits (P. Vayera)

t's okay to be afraid during times of uncertainty, especially when much is at stake. But when we let fears rule us without lovingly questioning them, we tend to make what we fear more likely to impact us. ​And then who are we really? By Rabbi David Evan MarkusLekh Lekha 5786 (2025)​Recent Divrei Torah on this portion:• Wresting a Blessing (2023)• Where… Continue reading Trust and Verify (P. Lekh-Lekha)

The Torah Cycle begins again.  As our ancestors have done for thousands of years, the turning of Torah's scroll aims to teach us partly by eliciting our questions.But for many centuries, one question apparently was too dangerous to the patriarchy for most to ask – which is why we must. By Rabbi David Evan MarkusBereishit 5786 (2025)Recent… Continue reading The Courage to Buck the Patriarchy (P. Bereshit)

In this first Torah portion of the new spiritual year, traditionally read between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur during most years, Moses prepares our spiritual ancestors for transition into new leadership (Joshua) and a new journey (into the Land of Promise).His way of doing so speaks to us exactly now, as we begin this new… Continue reading Be Strong and Courageous (P. Vayelekh)

For whom do you stand?  I don't mean physically (though we'll get to that shortly).  I mean existentially: for whom do you stand?This week's Torah portion rehearses a pivotal "Stand Together" moment we will experience on Yom Kippur.  Now over 700 days post-October 7, its call lands on me very differently.  By Rabbi David Evan MarkusNitzavim 5785 (2025)… Continue reading For Whom We Stand (P. Nitzavim)

What we do matters: our choices and behaviors have consequences even if we pretend not.With Selihot approaching this weekend, Torah bellows this truth like a shofar blast, as if to rivet our attention to the truths of our lives and our power to renew our lives for goodness. By Rabbi David Evan MarkusParashat Ki Tavo 5785 (2025) Isaac… Continue reading Truth or Consequences (P. Ki Tavo)

Sometimes time is against us and we must act urgently – climate change, hunger, unjust wars and more.  Other times, time can be our hidden partner, inviting us to watch time so that our negative impulses can abate when not immediately indulged.

Each year I inwardly buzz at this week's Torah portion, which is named "judges" and centrally concerned with justice.  My identity, my secular career and my efforts to walk in the world mirror back at me.  It presses me, in one of Torah's famous urgings (Deut. 16:20), צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף / tzedek tzedek tirdof – "Justice!  Pursue justice!" 

Western thought tends to hold that what we "own" – what we buy, what we earn, what we produce – is truly and only "ours." Whoever we are and whatever our politics,  much that we know about democracy and capitalism assumes this fundamental premise. The idea is so basic and engrained that we hardly notice it – and… Continue reading What’s Mine is Yours (P. Ekev)

We've all known disappointments – some deeply personal, others collective and even global.With 20/20 hindsight, we know that there's life after our disappointments, and  even blessings.  In the moment that life dashes our hopes and dreams, however, often we forget.This week's Torah portion offers profound lessons about recovery after life doesn't go our way, with… Continue reading Recovery After Disappointment, and a Pregnant Moses (P. Vaethanan)

This weekend in the year 70 CE, Rome destroyed the Second Temple, launched a wave of exile and depravity, and ended Judaism as it then existed.The destruction became a symbol and stand-in for much that we try not to see or think about about Jewish persecution, loss and suffering.  Humans are adept at limiting our vision… Continue reading When We Don’t Want to See – Tisha b’Av, Stronger Together (P. Devarim)

Last week, Israel's High Court of Justice ordered the Orthodox rabbinate of Israel to let women take rabbinic ordination examinations on the same terms as male applicants.For thousands of years, Jewish life has evolved.  Varying by issue and era, some evolutions have  been fast, some glacially slow, some halting and non-linear, some seemingly "two steps… Continue reading Spiritual Vision: Now, and Beyond Now (P. Matot-Masei)

Don Quixote comes to mind, though Cervantes meant his fictional character to be satire.Too many zealots, both historical and modern, are anything but fictions or mere satire.A zealot's charisma can captivate and intoxicate. A zealot's seeming commitment to principle can inspire – or blind.  Adulation can reinforce the zealot's sense of rightness.  Intoxicated by their own… Continue reading The Problem of Zealotry – Part 1 (P. Balak)

Last week we encountered the issue of zealotry – its captivating power, and its often very high cost to self and society.  We asked whether the nature of zealotry requires that we, in turn, must become zealots to confront zealotry's harms.Our world today demands our best answer. A photo from my personal Torah scroll, the 'vav'… Continue reading The Problem of Zealotry – Part 2 (P. Pinhas)

"...Hospitals usually aren't serene places.  From inbound ambulance to bedside telemetry, lights flash, sirens wail and monitors beep.  Late at night when I leave the hospital, the metronome of nighttime crickets evokes the beep beep beep of hospital time..."

The fourth book of Torah (Numbers) opens with our desert-wandering ancestors starting their 14th month walking free from Egypt.  They begin by taking a census of the Children of Israel, of each separate tribe, and of subsets of the Tribe of Levi dedicated to sacred service.  Thousands of years later, Auschwitz survivors bore numbered tattoos on… Continue reading Who Counts (P. Bamidbar)